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Last year and a half has been excitingly eventful. It all started in August of 2013, when I joined Parth & Nikhil in their startup TommyJams. I vividly remember the day Parth called me. It was 10 pm on 19th of July when Parth and I had our first conversation on joining TommyJams. In the beginning, I wasn’t too sure about the prospect, but after a couple of skype calls with both Parth & Nikhil the next day, I decided to take a plunge into the startup world. I was so excited that by 21st morning, I had my train (from Jaipur to Bangalore via Delhi) booked to make sure I join them on or before 29th of July at Microsoft Ventures.

Why is MUSIC a dear friend and Why did I join TommyJams?

Music is very close to my heart since childhood. I participated in a lot of music competitions (group category) during my school days. There was, in particular, two reasons why I was so mesmerized by music. First, it made me super-happy (for no apparent reason) and second, it gave me a sense of being present in this very world. That was my fascination with music in school. Now, what about college? At BITS, I was exposed to tons of new music and especially to Indian music scene. At around the same time, I started following music talent shows like X-Factor. Watching hundreds of artists/musicians fulfilling their dreams on the X-Factor stage gave me thrill beyond measure. By the start of 3rd year, I made a promise that one day I am going to do something for musicians. So, getting an opportunity with TommyJams, where I can do good to both artists and music lovers was a dream come true. And, I joined them to experience that thrill and energy again!

MS Ventures days!

During those 4 months (August – November), we, literally, worked our asses off for 10+ hrs every day for 7 days a week. It was FUN! I am not kidding. We worked together, laughed together, and ate together. To simply put it, we wanted to accomplish great things no matter what. Apart of immense business knowledge/ethics from entrepreneurs, mentors, aspiring entrepreneurs and fellow interns, I also develop my love for technology in here. Technology opened up my mind to infinite possibilities. It made me believe that we have resources to impact millions and billions of lives. Two very important traits/features that I improved during this period were “how to be happy in all situations and how to share”. I thank Parth! for making it happen. I admire his traveller spirit. Talking about Nikhil, he is totally different from Parth. I learned the importance of focus, and hustle from him. Learning from other MS ventures teams was incredibly helpful and inspiring, too.

Important decision to JOIN TommyJams full-time!

After my gig with TommyJams at MS ventures, I decided to join them full-time. My first two months (Jan-Feb) were focused on business operations. At TommyJams, business operations include maintaining a proper sync between an artist and a venue before an event, work collectively with all the team members, taking full responsibility of on the day event management (micromanagement), and smooth handling of payment procedure after the gig. In nutshell, providing a smooth and enjoyable gig experience to both the artist and the venue.

March-November period – A roller coaster ride! Learned the true meaning of a startup!

Just after MS ventures program, we were selected as top 100 startups around the world by StartupChile program. By mid-January’14, both Parth & Nikhil decided that it was a good opportunity for the company to explore international expansion and kickstart operations in Chile through the StartupChile program. It was a huge opportunity for me, individually, to head TommyJams India. For initial few months (after Parth & Nikhil left for Chile) we only had a team of 4 people (Nikhil, Parth, Nandan and me) who were running TommyJams in India and Chile. It was amusing in the beginning to play (work) in different timezones. I still remember waking up 3 or 4 o’clock in nights fixing bugs and discussing way forward with them. Similar, was the situation for both Parth & Nikhil. Virtual team management is difficult to sustain, therefore, we decided to meet twice a week (Monday and Wednesday/Thursday) on skype. These meetings were sort of mandatory. We exchanged over 30 emails every day continuously for a period of 3-4 months, properly going through every piece of work. I know you must be feeling that it is micromanagement and it is not good BUT it was the right thing to do. I was totally NEW to our business and it was every important that we do the right things, right from beginning. That helped me a lot in developing self-confidence as well. My curiosity took a totally different trajectory during this period. I was responsible for the company’s business here in India, so it was my job to keep our company fresh with new ideas/suggestions/feedback. And boy! that was FUN.

During this time, we also collaborated with Solstice Festival, to organize our first International festival in India on World Music Day (21st of June). By early May’14, we hired Abhijit to kickstart our Mumbai operations (he later played a significant role in sponsorship deals for the festival). Throughout the preparation, we faced huge challenges. We had only 2 weeks to make it and since it was World Music Day, many other venues and organizations like Alliance Francaise were organizing their own festivals/events. We were facing stiff competition to attract good artists and to convert more and more venues for hosting our festival. Daily routine was damn! busy. We were setting up meetings with venues, sponsors and calling artists right, left and center. We were, literally, on a 24-hrs clock every day and at one point it seemed that we would lose it BUT Abhijit nailed Millers sponsorship at the right moment and with most of our calls getting converted towards the end, we were right back on track. After 2 weeks of sweat, frustrations, devotion, rejections, we proudly organized pilot run across 12 venues in Bangalore. Convincing artists/musicians to perform for FREE (to keep world music day spirit alive) was a gruelling task for us. Fortunately, 10 out of 12 artists, who performed with us did it for FREE (closing deals feels so, so good! ). And Seeing 100s of music lovers turning up for our gigs at each venue was a delight to watch. I remember Sharath (a friend of ours, who was also helping us) and I were running from venue to venue on 21st June night, taking gig photographs, counting number of walks-in and making sure everything go according to our plan. Shout out to him as well for making it happen! AND A huge thank you to Construkt Festival team and all our friends, who supported us and contributed during the festival build-up and operations.

Time was running away, rather fastly!

By August second week, I ran out of all my steam. I just couldn’t work. I wrote a separate blog on my August month experience here. But with Parth & Nikhil’s support, I was back on track by the end of August. Things were looking fine again but around mid-September, I started having doubts whether I can continue further with TommyJams. I discussed my situation/options with a couple of friends, other entrepreneurs and my family and after my home visit (Diwali breaks), I knew that my time was up. I developed my fascination and curiosity for startups in mobile space during my time at TommyJams and thus, I started my search for startups where I can find this right opportunity. Vikas, a good friend of mine helped me and I was finally able to find my next chapter!

I met Momoe’s co-founders in 1st week of November. After spending hours and hours over the next couple of visits, discussing their ideas, team structure, vision, mine and their past experiences (both at college and professional levels), I decided to join Momoe from 1st of December. Just to give you an heads up, we at Momoe have a vision to change the way WE LIVE. We provide you an easy mobile based payment solution to pay when you eat out, shop and commute. So, make sure you download and try out our app.

Final Thoughts

Today is 28th November (and my last official TommyJams gig) and with only two days left, I can’t believe my journey with TommyJams is coming towards an end. It has been such a fruitful and enriching experience both at personal and professional levels. Made a lot of new good friends, whom I can bug day and night. The sad part is, last year around the start of December, I joined TommyJams full-time and this year from December onwards, I would no longer be with TommyJams. BUT the good part is, I can see myself becoming the person I always fantasized. You know, a lot can happen if you throw yourself out in/for something/someone you love!

Also, I would like to appreciate Parth & Nikhil for their immense support and guidance. They played a very crucial part in my development. And I wish you guys my best.

To end, I am very ENTHUSIASTIC about my new chapter. Hope I can write a good story in this chapter, too.

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Till last January, I hated coding/programming and now it gives me a self-belief and somehow makes me feel good. As my friend Mohit put it – coding is spiritual, can only be experienced. It can neither be explained nor justified.

Umm…something is wrong about the start. Didn’t suit the post title, right? May be but you have to bear the pain of reading it to know “what it is about”. Lets begin.

(Sorry for such an abrupt beginning)

I puzzle over arguments such as whether reading books can enhance English speaking/writing abilities. Can singing help you become a better orator. Why talking to some people make us feel lively. What cause human misunderstandings. Why aging (or experience) make us wiser. All these questions have one common thing – they all sound weird and stupid. But if we change our perception and try looking brain as a piece of code (humongous lines of code ever written in human history) then answer to each of the earlier made arguments and questions can be trivial.

Take this for example – what would you do if your code isn’t working? Common solutions are: try changing parameters; find out where you missed semicolons; wrong database syntax and etc, etc. What is common in all these solutions? First, each solution is a process (can be short or long depending on your task and what you are trying to achieve). Second, this process is repetitive (takes time and energy, and need patience). In computer world, we provide code (here, treat code as a person) inputs. Our inputs are our thoughts. Our thoughts are our experiences. Our experiences diversify over time, our thoughts begin to feel wiser and our inputs become more accurate which means our code (which is a person, as I asked you to believe) behaves sharper and smarter (less errors encountered).

Above analogy also applies to our brains. In our case (humans) real time life experiences are unconsciously providing us inputs which act as signals for our brains to change its functioning. Exposing brain to different experiences enhance certain part(s) of our brains which make us behave individually.

Many people and books propagate – human brains are hard-wired. They all are partially right. We should question them – In what/which ways are they hard-wired. Are they hard-wired not to be able to change. Of course not. Are they hard-wired such that each individual learns a particular skill differently (through different experiences). Last statement makes sense. For some of us shopping is relief, for some playing football is, for some reading books is, for some running is, for some eating is, and for some listening music is relief.

This characteristic is very similar, if not similar, to algorithms. Each algorithm is designed to give a particular set of output(s). What if each human brain is an algorithm. It clearly describe why humans can be divided into sets based on characteristics/traits. Moreover, each human can develop skills (for say – leadership, selling) in many different ways. If I want to understand leadership then learning via coursera may not be a good option for me but it can be a great option for someone sitting just right next to me. World is filled with numerous such examples showing us distinct ways to attain subject knowledge and practice skills.

So, my next and last question is – what can we refer from human’s brain design:

First, treat each individual differently; allow them to dream; develop within them a sound self-belief system so that they can marvel their goals/dreams.Second, don’t give up easily on difficult tasks/issues; repetition is the word and it changes everything.Third and last, human brains are far more complicated than we think they are and holds power beyond our imagination. Admire this enormously powerful fact and take small but steady steps to understand it.

P.S. I am able to develop this thought process only because of repetition and/in coding. Hence the title and excessive use of the word coding (as a protagonist) in this post.

Mr. A: Well! It’s been only a month and we’ve made $1,000 net profits on sales till this day. T-shirts cost $15.99-20.99. We have sold 350 T-shi..

Mr. B (interrupting): Are you kidding? $1,000 and 350 sales are nothing and you are evaluating your company at $500,000. Its pathetic. Tell me, what’s your differentiation; there are so many similar startups in market nowadays?

Mr. A: I agree but it will be huge soon. We are also planning to include referral system. For say: you referred us to your friend. And if your friend buy our product(s), worth of $35, then you cash-in $2, as a mark of appreciation.

Mr. B: Kind of royalty and that too, so early is a very stupid step. You guys simply are bozos. Okay now, tell me how are you planning to cut off other players?

Mr. A: We haven’t thought that through.

Mr. B: Sorry, strategy doesn’t seems to click at this moment. I’m not interested. Good luck.

Boom!! That’s it. It was over. He couldn’t convince Mr. B to gamble money on his startup.

————–Time for some Q&A—————–

Q. Why did it happen? What are the loop-holes in his proposal?

1) Company evaluation (too BIG, too SOON).

2) No “Extreme Differentiation” (space is crowded and chaotic, so one needs to have a “SPIKE” somewhere to stand out).

3) Profits and sales, both are acute (pilot run in an experimental phase; not fully tested and developed).

4) No strategy to curb competition (providing live reviews, ratings, etc. would help)

Q. Learning?
That’s life. You started off well, but due to uncertainties in your plan you go downhill. Career is similar. You could start with flying colors but if you lose hindsight, then you are probable to go downhill, just like Mr. A.

Career ladder is similar to doing a business. You start from the very basic (entrepreneur level). Slowly and strongly, with baby steps, you develop your capabilities, and your muscles to eventually rise up to the top. It all about growth. Doesn’t matter how quick or slow it is. Though, it must be significant enough to get you to the next level, every now and then.

Q.How investment and investor could be related to career?
Investments are our opportunities. Both grant us a path to grow, to take calculated risks and to put our focus to different avenues. Thus, helping building our capabilities, as pointed out earlier.

On the other hand, Investors are the people, who believe in your abilities. They invest in you. Take personal interest to give you a fighting chance to showcase your talent. That’s why it’s very important to have right investors in life. World is too big and challenging to do everything yourself. So start building good personal relationships with the right people, if you haven’t.

3) Restrict yourself from doing too many things, too soon. If you are a person who wants to do many things, then divide them into timeframes on priorities, like till age 30 this, till 40 that…and so on.

4) Don’t let disappointments hamper your thinking. Everything has a time. Your time would certainly come. Keep working towards your goal to become a success.